Bin Laden & Saudis May Have Liwatted Khazanah For RM100.0 Million

Well Equinas has ok-ed to invest RM90 million with a company whose parent in Singapore (Asiasons) had trading in its shares halted. Asiasons may have RM4.0 billion wiped out from its market capitalisation in Singapore. 

The GLCs losing money by the hundreds of millions is never ending. And getting liwatted by the Arabs by the hundreds of millions of Ringgit also never seems to end. (Yet the GLCs fully meet their KPIs every year - without fail.)

i. It began with an Arab scientist ripping off about RM600.0 million some years back - early 2000s.

ii. Then there was some serious liwatting of Khazanah by the Arabs in the land flipping in Medini. A few hundred million Ringgit was also lost. 

iii. Now we have this case of Khazanah being liwatted again of possibly RM100.0 Million. Penerbangan Malaysia Bhd is a GLC that is owned by Khazanah Nasional Bhd.

Wee Choo Keong (former MP for Wangsa Maju) has the story at his Blog here.

Kan saya dah kata dari awal lagi - just wind up Khazanah Nasional Bhd. I believe they are doing more damage and destruction to us all than bringing much good. 

And despite Khazanah having no otak of its own. All these foolhardy investments or business deals that go wrong invariably involve the CON-SULTANS.  Bukan saja Khazanah dunggu, con-sultan dia lagi dunggu.

Some years ago, Malaysia Airlines (whose planes are leased from Penerbangan Malaysia Bhd, whose parent is Khazanah) decided to "lease" three airplanes to a Saudi Arabian Airline called Al Wafeer Air. 

Here is some quick background on Al Wafeer :

"Al Wafeer Air  was a charter airline based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Its main operations were Hajj and Umrah charters. It was founded by Adnan Dabbagh, Former Executive Vice-President of Operations of Saudia. The major stakeholders in the carrier were Saudia which held a (40%) stake in the carrier, with Bin Laden Group, the Naghi Group and Al Tayyar Travel Group holding (12.75%).  Al Wafeer ended operations in 2011.  They had operated one Airbus A310-300 leased from White Airways and three Boeing 747-400 leased from Malaysia Airlines. 

Controversy  :   In February 2011, a Malaysian daily reported that cabin crews working with Al Wafeer were only paid half of their salaries and also their allowances payment had been put on hold. However, the issue was solved when Al Wafeer agreed to pay the outstanding dues."

So the Arabs shut down the airline in 2011. 

i.   they did not even pay the crew salaries

ii.  they did not pay MAS for the lease charges

iii. they did not pay the servicing and maintenance charges

MAS punya dunggu. If I recall my own aircraft leasing experience correctly (I used to handle Boeing 747s and 737s in the late 90s) this is what was called a "wet lease" - meaning the lease includes the aircraft, the crew, maintenance for the aircraft and insurance.

So the Pak Arab jual ticket saja.

The Pak Arabs did not even pay the Malaysian crew their full salaries. Plus they did not pay Malaysian Airlines the leasing charges or the maintenance charges. (Why did MAS allow the planes to leave the service hangar if they have not settled the lease and maintenance charges? In the old days Airod will not allow planes to leave the hangar until the airlines paid all their maintenance charges. Apa susah sangat?) 

Wee Choo Keong points out that the Malaysian aircrew has succesfully sued Al Wafeer Airlines in a Saudi Court and won the case. The defunct airline must now reimburse the unpaid salaries of the air crew within 60 days.

Wee Choo Keong asks if the aircrew can sue the airline (on their own) and win the case, then when is MAS going to sue the Arabs to recover the RM100 million that is still owing to MAS? (actually RM64 Million which should have ballooned to RM100 Million by now).

Wee says,

"The 32 ex-MAS staffs, who were seconded to Alwafeer Air, had to suffer for at least 2 years without any help from MAS, our Embassy in Riyadh or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Some were left stranded in Jeddah and some were lucky to return to Malaysia."

On 1-9-2011 Wee had even posted an article entitled “How many years did Khazanah sleep on the huge debts owed by Alwafeer Air to MAS?” 

My view is that the Medini deal, this MAS deal and other deals where Middle East investors have royally screwed us or got the upper hand may have some common denominators. There may be "middlemen" involved who take a cut. Influential people who can dance with hundreds of millions of our money.

This is what has been happening in this country especially since 2003. I dont think this is the last of it either.